Through the amazing network facilitated by the internet, I find myself discussing some major issues regarding the mechanics of writing with Matthew Jadud, who maintains an active blog at SubUbi.org. In one of his posts and a subsequent comment by another reader, the issues of collaborative writing and maintenance of accumulating “versions” were put forward.
After I jumped in with a comment of my own, Matt and I decided to jump in with a more wide-ranging discussion. Here’s how he described the issues for discussion:
In putting up a note about tools for collaborative scientific writing, I tweaked the interest of Tom Colvin over at Becoming A Writer Seriously. I’ve offered to handle more questions in this vein, as I think there is an important space here—how can you set up a writing environment that allows you to:
- Sleep at night knowing that your working copy isn’t only on your computer,
- Wake up in the morning and be able to revert back to a previous version,
- Collaborate with others, anywhere, without having to worry about keeping track of which version is attached to which email, and
- Sleep even better knowing that it is all backed up somewhere
ANd here’s how I described the issues, from my point of view:
Comment from Tom Colvin
Time: 20070212, 11:38
Matt, I appreciate you rising to my bait. I think we’ll have an interesting discussion. But first, let me explain where I’m coming from, both a similar and different place than yours.
For several years, I’ve been researching, and now finally writing, a rather huge, little-known story about a scientific/medical expedition sponsored by King Carlos IV of Spain. While I’ve been writing professionally all my life, I’ve never attempted anything of this scale before.
I’ve faced several problems/issues regarding how to proceed. My search for solutions has been a consuming interest for the past year and a half. I’ve learned alot during that time, but I’m still searching for the best solutions. In fact, it’s that search that lead to my own blog, a place to share my discoveries.
Here are my issues/problems:
1 — How to be sure I’ve backed up all my research and writing, which, without vigilance, gets scattered all over my hard disk and into some online repositories.
2 — How best to take notes on my research and to keep track of the extensive bibilography I’ve accumulated. This has been a massive problem.
3 — How to best manage the file/files that contain my writing — a problem that has twol aspects. FIRST, should I work with a program that wants to keep the entire book in a single file? Or, should I keep chapters in separate files — and, if so, how to I keep a clear overview of my work and my progress?
4 — SECOND, regarding writing files, how best to keep “versions†as I progress. This will become even more important when I get into collaboration with an editor [and hopefully, someday, with a publisher].
5 — And, lastly, what back up strategies should I follow.
These problems have led me to test drive many different programs. I’ve found quite a few that I really like and am already using a lot — with other writing projects. But I still haven’t found the perfect solution for my major history project.
Just last night, I may have found what I’m looking for — and I’m a bit irritated with myself that it took so long to find it: NOTA BENE. Today I’m installing it for a test drive — fingers crossed for good luck.
I’ll stop here, with the issues laid out from my point of view. I suspect scientists and historians will require different solutions. But we can still learn a lot from each other.
If you wish to follow this discusion, or even participate, go to Matt’s website. Once there scroll down and click on the WRITING category on the right side — this will pull up the discussion we are conducting. Feel free to submit comments of your own. It promises to be a most interesting discussion.
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